I am a semi pro photographer still with a lot to learn. I had a photoshoot recently where it all seemed to go wrong and I don’t know how to address it with the client.
This is a client I have worked for a lot in the past and they’re always happy with my work and rehire me for all their event photography.
They reached out saying they needed a lifestyle / headshot type shoot in their restaurant. This was split into two parts, one with a child and a food product and 5 different types of shots to get the 4 different type of shots with multiple food products. They gave me 1 hr to do the whole shoot.
I arrived an hour early to set up but client turned up 20 mins late. Then the restaurant didn’t have the correct food products for the shoot. There was no representative from head office just the two staff members to be in the shoot (not models)
We spent half an hour alone trying to sort the food products out and then I finally began shooting. 1st staff member was a reluctant model and it too a while to get her to relax by which time food product had melted and needed to be remade.
By the end, I was on site for two and a half hours, even though I was only being paid for 1 hour.
I’m not even happy to provide the client with the shots because they’re not good enough. (Client with eyes closed, blurred or product out of focus)
Currently, I’m thinking of sending the client what few shots I do have and explaining the issues but I don’t want to make it should like excuses for my lack of experience.
Do I write the whole shoot off and use it as a learning experience? I have definitely learned not to let the client dictate the time of a shoot.
I really do hate this undercutting talk, I've been seeing it for 20 years now and it's complete bs.
Take weddings for example; someone charging £400 for a wedding is not undercutting someone charging £2000 a wedding, because the person spending £400 on a wedding photographer likely couldn't afford £2000 for one.
There are different clients with different budgets. If this restaurant is paying a low cost photographer it is doubtful they'd pay someone twice the price to do the same thing.
I've done most types of photography, and still do a few subjects I enjoy like weddings. I've trained my wife up who is slowly taking over my business, it sounds like the OP folded under the pressure, if they've done previous jobs that have been fine.
As for your bakery analogy... Doesn't really work does it because you wouldn't sell the client the burnt ones, you'd bin them.
Your right they need to up their game, but things like this are great learning tools. I remember photoshopping a drain pipe from the top of someone's head when I first started because I hadn't noticed it. It taught me to fully check the background as well as the subject... That was 20 years ago. Mistakes are a great teacher.
"If this restaurant is paying a low cost photographer it is doubtful they'd pay someone twice the price to do the same thing."
That's exactly what undercutting is, isn't it? But I get what you are saying, and you're right. Someone who can't afford to spend €500 on a designer purse will never buy the original one anyway. They will buy the retail dupe. But at the other hand, someone who is a fulltime professional and fully depends on it to make an income, will have costs, expenses, taxes, that a photographer who does a paid job here and there doesn't have. They háve to ask higher prices, for the same work. Because not all of them are in the luxury bracket of the market.
I guess it all depends on the situation, it's not that black & white. My undercutting comment was just an afterthought, that's why I put it in brackets.
The point of my comment was to express my genuine surprise at someone who seemingly lacks a basic beginner skill going professional. As I have already explained in another comment, I am only talking about that basic skill. Taking sharp photos of still objects. No matter de circumstance.
I am not talking about managing & leading shoots, setting up lighting, making contracts, directing models, dealing with client expectations. I am not talking about taking photos of moving objects, people, action, sports, animals, kids... I am not talking about the less technical, more intuitive skills of photography like composition, colour, background...
Which OP dóes seem to have talent for, or she wouldn't have paid work nor repeat customers.
Those are indeed learning curves, even for professionals.
If you say her shoot went wrong because of stress. Yes, of course it did. Of course you stress if you're taking on a job that you're not ready for. That's my whole point.
I stand by my bakery analogy. If you don't have the basic skill, knowing how to set up & time your oven so that the bread comes out right, don't go opening a bakery. Of course, mistakes happen, but I don't know any professional baker who regularly has to throw out half or more than half of his work because it came out inedible, do you?
If your definition of undercutting is just working cheaper than anyone else, then aren't we all undercutting the guy charging the most? 🤣
For me and photography I'd likely say it's asking what someone else is charging and offering to do it for less. But I guess both are right in some sense.
I think what you're getting at is that being a professional photographer is only 15% about taking and editing photos and most people don't realise it's about so many different things, from advertising to accounting, from people management to handling stress. In which case you're spot on.
They were ready for the original job, just not experienced enough for the stressful situation. It's learning. Id have you laughing with the crap I've had to deal with over the years. And that only comes with experience which you can only get on the job. No one is ready for it until you've experienced it. I'm yet to have a bride or groom do a runner... That'll be interesting 🤣
Maybe I've just been around so long that first name last name photography with full kit worth less than I've paid for just on batteries or memory cards, no contracts, no insurance, just doesn't faze me any more. Theres a local girl to me who I've known for years who had started pushing it hard into the photography world, her images are all dark, out of focus and if I took them I'd think I'd just a stroke. She calls it a style, like that of the wedding photos and paid for at her wedding.
My wife is stressing about the competition, whereas I just laugh because she isn't. She'll likely not be around in a year like most others, including the girl who used a photo from a wedding where she was a guest to advertise her business.... It was my pose and I was half in the photo 🤣
It's not my definition. It's literally what the word means.
undercutting/ˌʌndəˈkʌt/
(Definiton from Oxford languages on Google.)
As I said, if you are a fulltime pro, depending on the work to make a living, you'll have costs a "semi-pro" taking on a job once in a while doesn't have. Those might be a website, promotion budget, income taxes (!), professional quality equipment, a studio, printer + way too expensive ink & paper, office, assistant, accountant... You HAVE to ask higher prices, which clients might not be willing to pay, because a "semi-pro" can do it cheaper, with or without the same quality of work.
"The point of my comment was to express my genuine surprise at someone who seemingly lacks a basic beginner skill going professional. As I have already explained in another comment, I am only talking about that basic skill. Taking sharp photos of still objects. No matter de circumstance."
Thát is what I am getting at. Taking sharp photos of still objects. It's the first thing I learned when I took beginner photography classes. Learning how to control your camera settings (ISO, shutter speed, aperture) to take sharp photos of still objects. It's what you learn to do, in different circumstances, by training, not by going professional, taking people's money and inevitably messing up shoots because you're not ready for the job.